Appasionata 1st movement

[Jimmas_gr]

I have a question that has been puzzling me for quite some time now. Does any body have a clue about what the second theme of the first part of Op57 is all about? I'm talking about the A, A-C-B-A-A, A-C-B-A-F etc. notes, after the first slow down (rephasion of the basic theme) in the third page of the piece (in most editions). Did Beethoven write anything about what it means? And why is it heared just 2 short times with no variations when the basic theme is played again and again again so many times?

[Rod]

Originally posted by Jimmas_gr:
Did Beethoven write anything about what it means? And why is it heared just 2 short times with no variations when the basic theme is played again and again again so many times?

I suggest you do not worry about what, if anything, it 'means' or how many times it is played - I'd answer it is what it is! Has someone posed these questions to you?


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[John Rasmussen]

Originally posted by Jimmas_gr:
I have a question that has been puzzling me for quite some time now. Does any body have a clue about what the second theme of the first part of Op57 is all about? I'm talking about the A, A-C-B-A-A, A-C-B-A-F etc. notes, after the first slow down (rephasion of the basic theme) in the third page of the piece (in most editions). Did Beethoven write anything about what it means? And why is it heared just 2 short times with no variations when the basic theme is played again and again again so many times?

I'm not sure which section you mean. The second theme of the Appassionata's first movement starts with repeated E flats in the left hand, high on the keyboard, then continues into a lyric melody in Ab (octaves over bass chords) and finally after a long descent explodes into stormy arpeggios in both hands. The lyric melody is repeated several times in the development and again in the concluding Piu Allegro.

I've never heard that there was a program to this sonata.

[Jimmas_gr]

After the 3 trills and the descending notes.
That "explosion" is what i'm talking about, the 2 first bars realy.

Noone possed a question to me, it's just a matter that troubles me and my playing.

You see while the first main theme which is just harmonic notes and a trill is repeated over and over with so many types of variations, this "theme" which to my opinion is closer to the idea of the Appasionata is left so unexplored.